That’s when Jerry Walkowiak, the manager of a neighboring Chick-fil-A, stepped in to save the day.
“When I heard about this, I called Jerry and asked if he could help us,” Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie told CNN. “After taking a look, he said, ‘There’s your problem. It’s backed up because you have a person registering people. ‘ Then he showed us how to do it right. “
With the help of a few additional volunteers, Walkowiak turned congestion into a smooth operation, reducing waiting hours to just 15 minutes.
More than 1,000 people received the vaccine that day, Haynie said. When everyone returns for the second dose on February 12, Walkowiak will be back to help control the drive-thru.
“We saw a small problem with your drive-thru system and we needed a few more people, so we gathered some of Rotary’s wonderful volunteers and went over there to speed up the registration part.”
Although the United States still has a long way to go before the pandemic is over, Haynie hopes the experience in his city will encourage others to get vaccinated and help with vaccination efforts.
“Jerry got a call and dropped everything because he knows that distributing this vaccine is a game changer,” said Haynie. “This is what light looks like at the end of the long Covid tunnel.”